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The following are freqently asked
questions about the WMR-918/968 Wirless Weather Station. If you have something
to add or see something that is freqently asked on the
WMR-918 Bulletin Board, please
contact us.
Questions:
Answers:
- Where can I get support
for this station?
- It depends on who you
purchased it from. If you bought your station from
Radio Shack,
Oregon Scientific or
Huger click through on their websites for
support. There are also some Unofficial Support Channels such as the
WeatherMatrix WMR-918 BBS listed on the
Main Page.
- What is the difference
between the WMR-918 and the WMR-968?
- There are several different
versions of this weather station. Most of the early versions were notoriously
buggy, but I am pleased to announce that, after meeting directly with the IDT
personnel from Hong Kong who are responsible for the hardware, I have learned
that the version of the WMR-968 that Radio Shack will begin selling in Summer
2001 will have a LOT of things corrected and upgraded. I am not sure at this
time whether Oregon Scientific will be selling this version or not. Here is
information on each different version:
- WMR-918: The original
hardware station, sold by Oregon Scientific and Huger from its inception in the
late 1990's until some time in 2001. These are gradually being replaced by the
newer versions.
- The instruments for this
station were exactly the same as in the WM-918,
but the hardware was redesigned to transmit the data at 433MHz rather than
through wires.
- The console was redesigned
to be a touch screen and a wireless receiver was added. New functionality for
receiving and displaying data was designed into the console.
- The pressure sensitivity was
adjusted from XXX to XXX to XXX to XXX to enable the station to be used at
higher elevations.
- WMR-968 (April 2001):
This new version of the station started shipping in April 2001 and includes a
number of hardware bug fixes.
- Using a larger solar panel
for the wind sensor, which polls frequently and would run out of power in
cloudy areas
- Redoing the fitting around
the instruments so water does not leak in and kill the batteries
- Allowing more room between
the solar panel and the back of the instrument, to avoid failures caused by
overheating in low-latitude areas.
- WMR-968 (June 2001): This
new version of the station includes a number of enhancements to the way things
are calculated or transmitted.
- The dewpoint now is
functional to 15°F. Before the dewpoint would stop operating at 20°F
even though the humidity would operate to 15°F.
- The HIGHEST wind gust, not
the LATEST wind gust, is transmitted every 12 seconds when the data is fed
wirelessly to the console. This solves the problem of missing high wind gusts
due to the 12-second rule (the FCC limits transmission frequency at 433MHz to
every 12 seconds, even though the wind instrument polls every 5).
- Who actually manufactures
the WMR-918/968?
- The station is manufactured
by a company in Hong Kong called IDT. It was
then resold to Radio Shack,
Oregon Scientific, and
Huger.
I was pleased to meet, in person, with the people directly responsible for the
hardware design and manufacturing, in 2001. It was at this time that I came
into knowledge of the June 2001 version of the WMR-968 (see above).
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